I contend that the majority of researches are NOT based on hypothesis testing. Every natural resource management agencies (Federal, state, and municipality) spends majority of their budget for data collection and monitoring to ensure that the focused natural resources are properly managed/protected. As such, the main research question is "what current state of natural resources (e.g., abundance, distribution, mortality, growth, harvest, etc)?" You don't need Null hypothesis testing to answer these questions. Instead, you would be using Bayesian statistics, rather than traditional frequentist null hypothesis testing statistics. And, yes, lots of grants are available, and many phD research projects were generated from those researches.
Toshihide "Hamachan" Hamazaki, 濱崎俊秀PhD Alaska Department of Fish and Game Division of Commercial Fisheries 333 Raspberry Rd. Anchorage, AK 99518 Phone: (907)267-2158 Cell: (907)440-9934